200 Meg hidden System partition

[NickDanger]

Hello all - new to 7 forums. I might have this post in the wrong place

With a default install of Win7, it creates a non-lettered 200Meg "system" partition with about 30 Meg of data.
I have been digging around for an explanation as to its purpose but found no clear explanation. Some say it's for bit locker, but then say that it would need to be at least 1 GIg. Some suggest that it's a way to guarantee an amount of free space for updates and backups (VSS needs a place to place snapshots). Some say it's the actual boot partition. Win7 starts the bootstrap here then moves the C: drive to load the rest of the OS.

If anybody has a clear explanation as to what it's for, I'd like to know.
Thanks
NickDanger

 

[smarteyeball]

It's the boot partition.

 

[Barman58]

Hi Nick, and welcome to the Seven forums

As smarty said it's the Boot partition but it's only created if you install to a completely fresh HDD if existing partitions are present then the install follows the form of earlier OS versions, and creates the boot file on an existing partition

 

[smarteyeball]

Sorry, my post seemed kind of abrupt. It first appeared in build 6801. Odd that it wasn't assigned a drive letter, as 6801 automatically assigned it as D:\

It looks like later builds might be hiding it :huh:

 

[DiamondNRG]

Yes, it is normally hidden with no drive letter now. It was that way starting with 6936 I do believe.

 

[SIW2]

If you look in Windows Disk Management you should see it listed as the System partition - this is MS speak for what everyone else calls the boot partition.

I believe it's a safety feature to keep it separate from the partitions your operating systems are on - what MS calls boot partitions.

Think the idea is if you hose any of your o/s partitions, you should still be able to boot up any other Windows o/s as the System partition is undamaged. You should also be able to make an image of it to restore in case of disaster.

Don't recommend trying a registry defrag if you have a separate System partition - you may get BCD issues.

Hope it helps

SIW2

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If you look in Windows Disk Management you should see it listed as the System partition - this is MS speak for what everyone else calls the boot partition.

I believe it's a safety feature to keep it separate from the partitions your operating systems are on - what MS calls boot partitions.

Think the idea is if you hose any of your o/s partitions, you should still be able to boot up any other Windows o/s as the System partition is undamaged. You should also be able to make an image of it to restore in case of disaster.

Don't recommend trying a registry defrag if you have a separate System partition - you may get BCD issues.

Hope it helps

SIW2

Hello SIW2.

I'll bet this will throw a lot of people for a loop.

Thanks!


Later Ted

 

[Barman58]

Thanks for the heads up SIW2,

As a side note it's good to see M$ thinking of the many users that, for whatever reason, decide to multi-boot operating systems,

A separate "boot" or "system" partition makes so much sense to cover the "OH dear!" situations that all Multi-boot scenarios sometimes cause.

I know it's been an option in Grub for a while now

Hopefully this system will be included in the RTM and later builds of Windows 7 and that they document it properly and perhaps even allow you to set-up this way when an existing partition structure already exists.

I do have a suspicion that this may well stop after the beta builds as M$ will assume that Multi-Boot is not a requirement with anything other than a Beta OS.


As for the use of registry defraggers or cleaners I personally would not advise they are ever used on a Beta operating system. This type of program, tend to be a bit too enthusiastic with what they consider dead links - often deciding that if it is not "normal" then it's not required. with a Beta OS containing many entries that were not "normal" when the Registry program was written it is , in my opinion, asking for trouble

 

[garysgold]

There will surely be folks who want to know if they can delete that partition to recover the space. Probably some that will just delete the space and then....

Gary

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Yeah Gary, I can hear them now; but it's taking up a whole 200MB of space ...



















Later Ted

 

[smarteyeball]

Something along the lines of <thread title> "Help! I just deleted a small and useless partition to reclaim space and now my Windows won't start!" ?

 

[Barman58]

Hi Smarty,

Well they couldn't use " I think I've broken Something " you've got the copyright on that one

 

[NickDanger]

Thanks All!!

I appreciate all the input.
I lettered the partition and was able to see the BCD, memtest, bootmgr, etc... It's definitely the boot...er....system...well:huh:...whatever it's called it is has the files that Windows needs to get itself up and going.

I do tech support for small businesses and if it it's not lettered most users won't ever even know it's there. It's the "power" users that will decide that it's not needed and try to mess with it. Fortunately, the only way to delete the partition is to remove the drive and do it from another system or boot to knoppix or erd, and kill it. Still, there is nothing to prevent someone from just deleting all the files in it.

I think this fits in with MS move towards componentization. It also might be a sign of MS moving even further towards virtualization. It seems conceivable that Hyper-V could be dropped into that partition and everything runs as a VM – albeit unknown to most users. Also, moving the bootstrap out of the core OS is required if you are going to boot to a VHD, which is one of the new Win7 features. It all makes sense now.

 

[smarteyeball]

Hi Smarty,

Well they couldn't use " I think I've broken Something " you've got the copyright on that one

lol. I'll be looking for royalties....

It's the "power" users that will decide that it's not needed and try to mess with it.

LOL

 

[SIW2]

There will surely be folks who want to know if they can delete that partition to recover the space. Probably some that will just delete the space and then....

Gary

Good point Gary - I'm sure people will try.


I don't think it will allow you to do that - at least not if you are using Disk Management.

Anybody got one of those little System partitions and would like to try deleting it to see if it lets you? (Don't try this unless you're an advanced user)

Hi NickDanger:

Still, there is nothing to prevent someone from just deleting all the files in it.

Yep - we get a few posting questions on the Vista Forum who want to empty/delete the oem "recovery" partition because they don't know what it is.

SIW2

 

[garysgold]

Yes and now we'll get to explain 2 partitions instead of one. If they can't delete it, that's just gonna make 'em mad and they'll want to know how to get rid of it. But then that is *one* of the reasons for hanging around here. To try to prevent tragedies when we can and to help people recover from tragedies when it's tooooo late.

Gary

 

[johngalt]

If they are stupid enough to think that 200 MB is going ot help their systemin anyway, good luck to them trying to delete it.

Even on a small 40 GB HD, 200 MB amounts to less than 1% of space....

 

[garysgold]

For many, it's not really about *how much* space it is, they tried to delete it and couldn't. They tried to format it and couldn't. That will just piss some off. "What do you mean I can't delete it, it's my &^$$#%# computer. Some, like myself, would say 'OK what am I not understanding here? I have one on my dell that I can't assign a driver letter to. 55MB. The space is nothing, but until I found out what is in there-the whats, whys, and wherefores- I was not satisfied.

Gary

 

[johngalt]

Again, if they are not savvy enough to understand that the 200 MB space might be there for a reason, then they really have no business poking around the computer's innards.

I cannot count the number of times someone with less then techie skills has gone in and done something just as you are hypothesizing - that is what gets users into trouble in the first place,. Yes, it may be *your* computer, but give the developers of the OS *some* credit - that is there for a reason, why try to mess with it? Give your OEM some credit for setting up the system as they do - that extra partition at the end is there for a *reason* why try to mess with it?

In the grand scheme of things it would be a lot better if tools like Disk Management used pretty accurate representations, so that a 200 MB sized partition does not appear to be 1/2 the size of a 400 GB partition. Then again, there are always going to be those people who have only a little knowledge, but think it is their right to do anything they want to their systems.

 

[NickDanger]

Dell partition

I love the little dell partition!! I boot to it all the time on systems for hardware troubleshooting. My biggest complaint is that they don't provide an easy way to create the partition when the drive dies and you have to reload the OS.

As for the new system partition, if someone has the knowledge to access it and mess with it but lacks the common sense to find out what it's for before they mess with it, then they disserve whatever trouble they get. The best way to learn is to break something.